How will UX design adapt to emerging technologies?

In this week’s #UXchat we’ll be discussing emerging tech and where UX design fits into the crazy new worlds of AI, VR, AR, MR, IoT and other advances that result in even more confusingly similar abbreviations.

In this conversation, our community of UX professionals will tackle such lofty topics as how humans can work in harmony with our new robot overloads (probs get to sit around a lot more) as well as tackling the ethical considerations (who makes the tea?) and product design challenges (comfier chairs will have to be made).

This week’s conversation was hosted by Miklos Philips, Head of User Experience at DoubleVerify and a huge proponent of user-centred design thinking. You’ll find many of Miklos’ helpful comments throughout the following discussions.

In the world of emerging technology, what are the implications for design?

From both the user and designer’s point of view, we’ll have to get used to new modes of interaction. Whether gestural, voice control or eyebrow raise (see the Roger Moore bot), new ways of interacting beyond the screen will become the new normal.

These new experiences will require new modes of interaction—modalities yet to be designed. Touch will evolve and expand. Gestures and physical body motion will become a more natural way of interacting with the digital world around us. What are the design implications? #uxchat

I don’t think the Design Thinking process will change. We’ll just have to adapt to new technologies and paradigms or risk becoming irrelevant. Experiences that we design for are shifting dramatically AI, VR, AR, MR, IoT, and any combination thereof. #EmergingTechnologies#uxchat

As you would hope, there’s a heavy responsibility for the designer of new technology to remember the user at the centre of the product. As Mira Nair states below in regards to interacting with AI, there will perhaps be a move away from UX design to relationship building.

I met a #chatbot at an event last night. Great to see how ppl interacted w it,but it felt a bit wrong to call it #UX.Was more like relationship building;as robots humanise, they are less like products.Is #productdesign for some #AI applications really relationship design? #uxchat

Really interesting studies on how #robotics should be made to look NOT human. People dont trust robots looking too human bc they can still tell its not a robot. That would be one consideration in the robot product design process that you dont get w many other products! #uxchat

This is in some cases not true. It is highly dependent on several factors such as culture, previous experiences with #AI/robots, media exposure, etc. Lots of research being done in the area of anthropomorphism as we speak. 🤖#uxchat

About process: we must never lose sight of the fact that it’s about making people’s lives easier. Designing “moments of delightful surprise” in this new paradigm—along with deep empathy for the user—is a skill designers will need to continuously master. #uxchat

It’s hard to say,as what’s usable for a few may not be usable for the masses….but this is a challenge for lots of other #productdesign at some stage, not just #emergingtech. Maybe flexibility is increasingly important in the design process for this kind of technology? #uxchat

There will be more pressure on lean UX and product teams. If you’ve gotten used to being a UX team of one, you may have to prepare to push yourself even further into scary new realms – like collaborating with other people! Shudder.

Q1. #VR + #AR puts further pressure on teams who are already lean. 🦄s wanted! Be a designer, a programmer, 3D/4D expert etc. Not so easy. #uxchat

The collaboration dynamics won’t change as much as disciplines within a development team. As far as how to work with people during this process there’s a great, recent article about this: Great Questions Lead to Great Design – https://t.co/cSeDdp8rNm#uxchat

How do we work in harmony with the machines? Maybe they’ll give us more time to concentrate on the bigger picture stuff – strategy, researching other future tech. Or maybe we’ll just have more time to watch Adventure Time.

Q1. In the spectrum of #AI, Human-Automation Interaction raises many questions = How do we ensure an easy exchange for humans which work together with #AI to achieve their goals? #uxchat

I hope that the #automation capabilities provided by new #AI etc. #tech for designers will free up their time to focus on the new challenges presented by #emergingtech…a cycle in which some new technology enables us to better focus on other, different new #technology. #uxchat

What are the biggest product design related challenges in emerging tech?

Invisible UIs, 360° environments, no buttons, health & safety concerns, education, training, whatever made The Lawnmower Man turn evil – all very important things to consider when designing products in the future.

To me, one of the big challenges: users operating in 360° “free space” … without windows and buttons to click, the old paradigms. *The future of interaction is spatial.* Today we’re still confined to 2D screens. What does it look like when we don’t have 2D “screens”? #uxchat#ux

Yes, I think “invisible UIs” and pre-visualizing human interactions in these new interfaces will be a challenge in the new works of AI, VR, AR, MR, etc. How do we wireframe a VR experience? #uxchat#ux#uxdesign

I think product design related challenges will be working with team members with different disciplines than what we’re used to and having the right tools to do our design work. What kind of artifacts are we going to have to produce in this new paradigm? #uxchat#ux#uxdesign

Christopher is the Content Marketing Manager of WhatUsersDo. He’s also a filmmaker and the editor of wayward pop culture site Methods Unsound. He used to be the deputy editor of Econsultancy and editor of Search Engine Watch.